The hunt of polar bears in East Greenland is sustainable Published 04.11.2025

By Fernando Ugarte and Kristin Laidre

For many decades, the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources / Pinngortitaleriffik was unable to provide scientific advice for polar bears in East Greenland because the scientific knowledge about polar bears in this area was not sufficient. This is no longer the case: after years of research, Pinngortitaleriffik has produced a report that presents the first scientific advice on the sustainable catch of polar bears in East Greenland.

First step: hunter’s knowledge

The report titled “East Greenland Polar Bear Subpopulation Harvest Risk Assessment”, presented to the Department of Fisheries, Hunting, Agriculture and Self-provisioning, is based on several studies that span the last decade.

The assessment of polar bears in East Greenland started with an interview survey (Indigenous Knowledge Survey) carried out in 2014 and 2015, where hunters from Tasiilaq and Ittoqqortoormiit shared their knowledge about polar bears and changes they have observed in the catch and the climate. Hunters also provided input on the places and times that were best suited for polar bear research. This information was used to design the study to estimate the abundance of polar bears in East Greenland.

Two separate populations

After the Indigenous Knowledge survey, Pinngortitaleriffik spent six field seasons between 2015 and 2022 studying polar bears along the entire length of East Greenland, from Prince Christian Sund at Cape Farewell to the Arctic Ocean off North Greenland. The research team captured 250 polar bears to mark them with tattoos and ear tags and take biological samples. Some adult female bears were fitted with satellite collars to track their movements. Data on the biology, movements, and genetics of East Greenland polar bears were analyzed. Tissue samples provided by hunters from their catches were important to this process. Results showed that there are two separate polar bear populations in East Greenland. A smaller one, called Southeast Greenland, lives in the fjords of Southeast Greenland south of 64°N latitude. The larger one, called East Greenland, ranges over most of the coast and encompasses all communities that hunt polar bears in East Greenland.

The advice in the new report is about the East Greenland population, which is hunted by people in Ittoqqortoormiit and Tasiilaq.

The largest ever aerial survey

In the spring of 2023, Pinngortitaleriffik conducted the largest polar bear aerial survey in history to count polar bears in the East Greenland population. The survey started at 64°N, south of Isortoq, and continued along the coast to the northern tip of Greenland. Hunters from Tasiilaq and Ittoqqortoormiit participated in the survey by flying with scientists and spotting polar bears from the air. Data from the satellite collars, satellite images of sea ice, and information from the Traditional Knowledge survey were used in the analysis of the aerial survey data. This led to the conclusion that there are around 2,364 polar bears in the East Greenland population (range 1,400 – 3,991 bears).

Harvest risk assessment

The harvest advice in the 2025 report is based on the 2023 estimate of the number of bears in the East Greenland population. The advice also considered biological information from polar bears handled by researchers, models about how the sea ice is changing, and information from hunters on past catches in East Greenland. The advice is called a “harvest risk assessment” because it evaluates the chances that different catch levels will cause the East Greenland population to decline, remain stable, or increase. It extends 34 years into the future, which is approximately three polar bear generations. Instructions on how to conduct the harvest risk assessment were provided to Pinngortitaleriffik by the Department of Fisheries and Hunting in 2024.

The results of the harvest risk assessment show that the sustainable catch in East Greenland depends on the type of scientific monitoring conducted in the future. Better monitoring makes it safer to adopt a higher quota. The catch levels in the harvest risk assessment include subsistence hunting, the killing of problem bears, and any other deaths caused directly by humans.

The quotas are decided by Naalakkersuisut, after they take into consideration international agreements, scientific advice, hunter’s and local’s knowledge and hearings with the hunting council and the municipalities. The scientific advice is just one of the sources of information that Naalakkersuisut uses to make a decision.

Different options

The scientific advice contemplates multiple scenarios in which the hunting of polar bears in East Greenland can be considered sustainable, depending on how much effort (and money) is invested into scientific monitoring of the population.  If there is more monitoring, it is possible for Naalakkersuisut to decide on a higher quota that can be demonstrated to be sustainable.

In the most conservative situation, with no or very little scientific monitoring for the next 34 years, a catch of 66 polar bears per year would be sustainable.

The sustainable harvest in East Greenland could be higher if scientific monitoring is conducted before 2040, and if results of the monitoring are used to adjust the quota, if necessary. The monitoring would need to include a Traditional Knowledge survey, studies of how the sea ice is changing, and captures of bears or an aerial survey in selected areas. Under these conditions, a catch of up to 83 bears per year would be sustainable. If, by 2040, monitoring results show that the East Greenland population is decreasing, has problems because of sea-ice loss or other causes of stress, it would be necessary to reduce the catch. If there is no sufficient monitoring by 2040, then the catch should be reduced to 60 polar bears per year, to be considered sustainable.

It should be noted that, since 2009, most of the monitoring of polar bears in Greenland has been paid by Denmark; Pinngortitaleriffik applies every year for funding from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency and this funding is not guaranteed.

Assumptions:

The options listed above are based on several assumptions. First, the catch in East Greenland should be monitored annually. Second, the hunt should consist of about two males per every female, as is today. Third, if the habitat and/or human activity in East Greenland change in ways that were not considered during the harvest risk assessment, it would be necessary to re-evaluate the sustainable harvest.

South Greenland:

Another important consideration for Naalakkersuisut when setting the quota is related to polar bears that are caught in South Greenland, which most likely come from the East Greenland population. The harvest risk assessment considered bears from South Greenland to be natural deaths because, once transported southward on the drift ice, they are unlikely to return to East Greenland. If the catch in South Greenland increases above the current level of 10 polar bears per year, it would probably be necessary to reduce the quota for the East Greenland population, as Pinngortitaleriffik lacks research to determine how bears killed in South Greenland should be accounted for in East Greenland harvest management.

An Indigenous Knowledge survey was recently conducted in South Greenland. Both polar bear hunters and sheep farmers were interviewed. The results of this are in progress and will reveal more information about polar bears in South Greenland. It is important for hunters to submit genetic samples from polar bears killed in South Greenland to better understand the connection between bears in this area and the two populations on the east coast.